The Water Catchment Management Plan represents the most significant milestone in the implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive in Malta to date. It provides a summary of the implementation process of the WFD since Malta’s accession to the European Union in 2004.

The EU Water Framework Directive requires that Member States prepare a River Basin Management Plan which deals with groundwater, coastal waters and protected inland surface water management issues. Malta had adopted its first Water Catchment Management Plan (WCMP) in March 2011. This plan was developed jointly by the Malta Resources Authority (MRA) and the Malta Environment and Planning Authority (MEPA) following extensive consultations with identified stakeholders throughout 2007 and 2009. The first WCMP included measures for achieving the environmental objectives of the Water Framework Directive and represented the most significant milestone in the implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive in Malta at that time. This first plan spelt out the steps needed to protect, enhance and improve the water environment of Malta and Gozo. Instead of focusing on groundwaters and surface waters individually, it is holistic in its approach since it considers the integrated management of groundwaters and surface waters at the water catchment scale.

Four years later Malta is reassessing this first plan with the aim of introducing a second revised plan. This Second Plan assesses the new challenges that have been identified through implementation of the First Water Catchment Management Plan. Furthermore an increase in knowledge on the state of our surface waters due to better monitoring results have enabled additional water management issues to be identified. Thus the second plan aims to target water management issues which Malta failed to identify or deal with under the first cycle.

This second plan currently covers the period 2015 to 2021. It proposes actions or measures needed to deal with the various significant issues identified in the plan and revises the 2011 set objectives for those waters that were deemed to be at risk of not achieving good water status by 2015. As part of this process, the draft chapters of the Second Water Catchment Management Plan are being launched for public consultation.

In addition a Public Consultation workshop was held on the 25th September, 2015 to discuss updates proposed. The presentation dealing with surface waters are provided below;